Tmp files are created as you use Word so that if the power goes down or you get a System Crash etc you can still open your Doc as at the time it made the last Tmp File, you can change timed Doc Backuptimes in Word Settings

Thank you both for the reassurance it took only a good old fashioned reboot to fix this one, merely coming out of Word was not enough. I had tried that anyway.

"Stressed editor" ignored the obvious. I find Word pretty stable normally, but I was punch drunk after using Corel 12 a lot yesterday and that can be very flaky.

I was after all doing a lot of cut and paste, had noticed the ~Wxxx.tmp coming and going but this one stayed.

A friend from long ago earns her crust as computer support in industrial systems and she claimed then that a reboot every now and then was a good idea if some complex, step by step procedure was being applied

Less panic and more thought should have been observed.
Im now convinced I confused the poor PC by too many save-as while disregarding the fact that I was dealing with a number of files mostly .doc some open some closed with different subscripts for the same documents.

(i.e. doc and docx willy nilly.)
Although I can save as docx the converter works without complaint.... normally..... what I was doing was stoopid!